posted May 17th, 2015 - The Sun Path Products NSL News introduced Savolo as Voodoo's 4-way successor in South Africa on April 28th, 2014. Savolo competed a few months later as the national team at the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2014.

The new South African national 4-way team (after Equanimity and Voodoo) now had to defend the national title for the first time and had no problem with doing that.

The South African national championships were held in Rustenburg, and Savolo member Alex Jordaan provided the Sun Path Products NSL News with information from South Africa. He said that the event had a bad start: "The competition started with a fatality on Day 1, which set a pretty sombre mood, and spirits and morale were low going in."

Alex Jordaan said that teams and competitors managed to focus and find ways to deal with it, and the competition was ultimately a great success.

The national championships were also the qualifyer for the FAI World Cup of Indoor Skydiving 2015 since South Africa does not yet have indoor nationals. The qualification for the Mondial 2016 will take place next year.

Alex Jordaan said that there were only three AAA Class teams since a couple of teams had injuries and personnel issues right before the competition: Those teams are re-grouping for the 2016 season."

He said that Savolo were not sure of the scoring level of Jazz Republic:

"We knew they had been training indoors and had been competing at a number of the indoor meets in Europe. They also had some outdoor training, and with the addition of Colin, who was previously on Voodoo, they promised to be a threat."

South Africa 2015			Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		L,P,18,22	15,5,17	21,9,14	Q,G,2,E	13,B,4	J,11,K,N	10,A,M,6	F,C,H,O,D	12,20,3	7,1,8	Total	Avg
1	Savolo	ZA	12	13	13	18	14	12	16	32	12	15	157	15.7
2	Jazz Republic	ZA	11	7	12	16	11	16	13	17	12	13	128	12.8
3	Velo X	ZA	9	9	8	10	8	9	10	17	6	9	95	9.5

Savolo had not done any training jumps since August last year and competed with a new lineup. Andre Van Heerden was not able to make the trip to South Africa: "So we employed the talented and experienced services of Debbie Lamsley, who trains and competes in the UK and who happens to also hold a South African passport." Debbie Lamsley was previously a member of Vision 99 and is currently on a team called ACM (Aerial Combat Maneuvers), who hope to challenge Vision 99 for the top spot in the UK.

The other Savolo members knew each other well enough after being together for a few years that it was enough to keep Jazz Republic at bay.

The competition was not without it’s fair share of additional challenges, as Alex Jordaan explained: "On a number of jumps I experienced symptoms seemingly related to Hypoxia. The DZ elevation of over 5,000 feet means exit altitudes of above 16,000 feet."

South Africa 2015			Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class		O,H,15	C,Q,B,7	N,9,E	M,6,F	19,21	-	Total	Avg
1	SYZYGY 4		9	11	10	12	8	-	50	10.0
1	Haya-Naat-Busa		7	9	13	12	9	-	50	10.0
Rank	Rookie		B,H,L	O,N,D	K,P,F	E,C,J	G,M,A	Q,D,N	Total	Avg
1	Levitation		7	8	10	10	10	3	48	8.0
2	Full Frontal		7	6	8	7	6	6	40	6.7
3	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles		6	3	5	6	8	5	33	5.5
4	Hoboism		3	3	0	0	3	1	10	1.7

It turned out to become a learning experience for Alex Jordaan and the team:

"Even though the DZ at the competition venue was only about 3,500 ft. ASL, the pilots were regularly spending extended periods of time at 12,000 feet. It was a great learning experience since I have factored some acclimitization time both in the US and SA for national championships next year, as well as some high altitude training via specialized equipment prior to the next competition. I also learned that on certain jumps my breathing is not very regular since the hypoxic symptoms often presented shortly into the skydive and got worse as the jump progressed which is the opposite of what one would expect. Simply put, I think I was holding my breath on some jumps...!"

However, there was a happy end to the challenging story. Savolo posted a new South African record for a single round. The previous record of 31 points was set by Voodoo in Russia in 2010.

Savolo is now planning for the 2016 season and the next World Championship of Formation Skydiving, the Mondial 2016 at Skydive Chicago.

Alex Jordaan said that his team has a decent training plan for 2016: "It starts at the end of this year or early next year. The reason for the delay is that Amy Kirtland has been busy with her 2-year MBA. She was very committed to her studies and was not able to travel since she would miss classes. She finishes up in November this year and then has dedicated the next season until the world meet in Chicago to the team.

"Our plan is to do four camps of a week long, each with Thomas Hughes in Eloy. Three of those weeks would be before SA nationals next April to give us a good chance of winning and then another camp before the world meet. Since we have less than 200 jumps together in the last few seasons combined, this will be a significant increase in training for us and I think will increase our performance level significantly."